bubble tip anemone

[blackcap]

I bought a bubble tip anemone a few months back with a tomato clownfish. It seemed to do very well at first although he never opened fully like the lfs said he would. Since then the anemone started moving around a lot, then closing up quite a bit. I finally had to get rid of the clownfish because he killed almost all my other fish. Then I realized the anemone didn't appear to have any bubble tips anymore. That's when it finally opened up. I knew it wasn't dead because it didn't turn to sludge. I haven't been able to take it back to the lfs either because it's digs into the liverock.
Now it appears to be growing back its bubble tips and it has started accepting frozen brine shrimp from me. It still closes quite a bit, but it has been stretching toward the light the last week. I still haven't it seen it reach its tentacles out again for food since I first bought. I guess it is doing better without the clownfish and I'm thinking of getting a smaller, gentler maroon clownfish.
My question is: is there anything I can add to my water to make the anemone grow better and stay healthy? I have perfect water readings and I make monthly water changes. I keep the temp. a constant 79F, I feed twice a day and I have a standard 30 gallon tank with two bulbs. I also have good air flow, I can see the air bubbles in the tank.
Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[buzz]

OK...when you say you can see air bubbles, what do you mean? Are you aerating the tank with an airstone? If so, STOP!
Aeration will come from surface agitation. A powerhead can do this for you. Too many bubbles will irritate it, and possibly hurt it.
You need good current, but not too much directly on it. You need to feed meaty foods too. Also, you said you had 2 bulbs. How powerful? What kind of bulbs?
When you say water parameters are perfect, what do you mean? What are they? What is your salinity? nitrates? pH? alkalinity? Those are important in addition to ammonia and nitrites being 0.

 

[buzz]

Also, hate to tell you, but a maroon is not smaller, or gentler than a tomato...I would have stuck with the tomato. Just my opinion.

 

[jacksonpt]

What type of lighting do you have? BTAs do not like super intense light, but if you say it is extending toward the light, I suspect you don't have too much light (though you might have too little).
Feed it as much as you can... every day if possible, every other day at least. Feed it a varied diet - shrimp, scallop, mysis, brine, silverside... whatever you can get it to take. From my experience, there are 2 primary reasons why anemones die: 1) they are not healthy when purchased, but slow metabolisms do not show poor health right away; 2) starvation. BTAs require a ton of nutrition... a healthy, happy bta should be fed every other day. If yours has lost it's bubbles it's probably because the BTA wasn't getting enough nutrition. Keep feeding it, keep your water good and it should be fine. If they are healthy and fed properly, they are very hardy anemones.